John Matel's Memorial Blog
I have been riding my bike to work again through Arlington Cemetery, as I wrote in yesterday’s post. Daily exposure to something can desensitize you to its details, but it can also help you see and appreciate it more. I am not sure which side I fall on most of the time. Maybe I see it new again each season. Anyway, I took a couple of pictures.
Espen’s professor told him that he could get a few extra credit points if he visited an exhibit on the history of computers at the Museum of American History, so we went down. It turns out the exhibit was no longer there. They took it away more than two years ago when they did renovations.
We took a picture of Espen at the museum to prove that he went. I find interesting that the exhibit has been gone for two years. Obviously the professor hasn’t visited recently; I wonder how many of his students claimed to have gone in the meantime.
It reminds me of the sleazy journalist’s trick of writing about an event using only the press release. I have seen stories reporting the comments of guests who never showed up or giving details of events that were canceled and never happened at all. Sometimes nobody really seems to care. The irony is that a bogus story is usually more interesting than the real thing.
I enjoyed the museum. I haven’t really been through it since the renovation. They restored the original “Star Spangled Banner” and put it in a nice exhibit hall and there were lots of nice examples of the machines and technologies that built our country. They had a big a special set of exhibits about electrical generation and a little hagiography for Thomas Edison, who deserves it. Of course, it didn’t hurt that General Electric was a major sponsor.
Pardon the hyperbole, but the unusually hard (for Virginia) winter has kept me off the running trails and I have been feeling unconnected. This weekend the snow melted off. So I got out yesterday and today running, walking and stopping long enough to take some pictures at what I believe is the end of winter. It is hard to believe there is still this much snow on March 7.
Above is the W&OD full of runners and bikers on this nice spring day. Below are jet streams. I take a break at Navy Federal S&L park grounds. You can just lay on the bench and look at the sky.
The white pine below is a nightmare for foresters, but very interesting to have in your front yard.
Below is a building across from the Metro.
Below is the bike trail along Gallows Road. Still not really in good form. All that sand and crud will make for an unpleasant ride. But a good rain or a sweeper will take care of it.
Below is one last look at my bike/running trail with snow, not always so crowded. I figure it will all melt off by tomorrow or the next day. The sun is high and the weather is warm.
I was drove Alex back to Harrisonburg and dreaded making the return trip alone in the dark, but with the full moon providing just the right amount of softly silver light and a good audio program to listen to (I am finishing Donald Kagan’s Greek history series) , it was actually very pleasant.
Alex is doing well at college, but it is a tough transition for him. He started in the spring semester, as a junior and got stuck in the dorm farthest away from campus. It is an overflow dorm. It used to be a hotel and is not actually on the JMU campus at all. These types of things make a big difference and he just had bad luck with all of them. He is doing well in classes, however, and I think he will adapt all right. I think what he really misses is his job at Home Depot. That gave him contact with people and something useful to work on. They really seemed to like him there. I hope he can get the job back for the summer.
The picture up top shows Alex at Cracker Barrel, where we stopped in Woodstock along I-81. They sell good old fashioned food. I had a good pot roast with mushrooms. Alex had sirloin steak. It feels like home. They had a wood fire burning in the fireplace. It is a nice smell. They sell that old fashioned candy shown in the middle picture.
At the bottom is the sushi shop at Tysons. It is not related to the other pictures or text. The conveyor is in constant motion. I don’t know how they can tell who takes what and how much they should pay. It reminds me of those old cartoons portraying modern times.
The snow is melting, but more is expected tomorrow to replace it. It is hard to believe that within a month the flowers will be blooming. The picture above is from March 23 of last year – a month from now. I will appreciate spring more after this especially snowy and cold winter.
Above is a protest on 22nd St. outside the State Department. I think they are Eritreans. I was in a bit of a hurry so I just took the picture and kept on walking, so I don’t really know what was bothering them. About a hundred showed up to chant for passersby and a good time was had by all except the taxi drivers who were annoyed that the street was blocked.
Above are broken magnolia trees outside the Archives. The snow is hard on these sorts of southern trees and there are lots of broken branches & trees around here. The snow weighs heavy on their leathery evergreen leaves. You can see why trees from colder climates would adapt strategies other than holding onto their broad leaves all winter.
Chrissy & I went to the movies at the AMC at Tysons Corner today. We saw “From Paris with Love” with John Travolta. It was one of those action thrillers where you have to suspend belief in human behaviors and the normal rules of physics. It was worth going but not real good. I wouldn’t recommend it if you have other things to do. There were just not good options, even with multiple cinemas. I wanted to see that Jeff Bridges movie, “Crazy Heart” but it wasn’t showing.
Cinema tickets are getting expensive. It was $18 for two. I am still a cheapskate and I remember when they were a lot cheaper, but the “theater experience” is worth it once in a while. We got popcorn and soda too. Everything is big.
We rarely go to the Mall anymore. When the kids were little, we were more frequent customers. It was a form of entertainment as well as shopping. We bought a lot of useless crap. Malls are better avoided when possible. You are tempted to buy stuff you can’t really use and food you don’t want.
Today I had real trouble resisting Cinnabon. They have a fan that wafts the scent out into the Mall. The funny thing is that I don’t like Cinnabon that much. They are too sticky and not worth the trouble of eating them. Nevertheless, the scent is enticing and difficult to resist.
Tysons is the biggest city in Virginia. It is really a massive complex of malls and offices. They are building the Metro out to Tysons, which is a little ironic but also positive. Tysons was the ultimate car center, but that is becoming unsustainable.
Above is the Vietnam Memorial. There was a bunch of grade school kids visiting the place and I heard them talking. They have no personal connection with a war that ended a quarter century before they were born. It is almost as remote to them as World War I was to me. It is not their war, nor even their fathers’. Vietnam is something their grandfathers may have experienced. Funny how fast time moves and how the defining events of your life are just history now.
Above is the MIA booth. They sell mementos, medals and patches. Below is snow removal near the Memorials.
Below is the path along the reflecting pool going toward the Washington Memorial
Above is the crowded subway car on the Orange Line. I usually get a seat, but lately they have the cars have been more crowded. They are raising the price of fare by a dime, but will probably also still cut service. Below is the sidewalk on the way to the Metro stop. They take care of the roads fairly well, but that means eight foot high banks of snow.
Washington is under more snow than any living person has seen and this has been the longest time ever when my running path were snow clogged. But Washington is pretty in the snow, as the pictures show.
It was warm and sunny today and the snow has the consistency of a snow cone. It will take a few more warm days to melt it all off.
Above is the Lincoln Memorial. Below Robert E. Lee’s house and Arlington Cemetery from across the Potomac.
Below is the snow covered running path near the Vietnam Memorial
We are off from work again today and the government will be closed again tomorrow. They say that we got more snow this year than any time in recorded history. This is less impressive when you recall that they have kept detailed weather records for only a little more than 100 years. Nevertheless, it is a lot of snow and it has been a cold season.
There is a real blizzard today and I can see why nobody should be driving. Espen tried to drive the truck to visit one of his nearby friends. He got stuck in our complex. Fortunately, Chrissy and I could walk over and dig/push him out. Yesterday, however, wasn’t bad until around 5pm. In fact, the main roads were perfectly clear. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I drove down to the forestry conference in Keswick , near Charlottesville. It is a little more than a two hour drive.
I took a little different way than usual. I started down I66 to US29 as usual, but then I cut off on US15 through Culpepper and Orange. The drive takes you through a really beautiful countryside, full of horse farms and vineyards with the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop. James Madison’s estate is nearby and so is Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. The soil is good and the climate is moderate. You can see what it looks like covered in snow. It is even prettier in springtime.
